Taipo Rural Home and Orphanage / St Christopher's Home, Tai Po [1935-1993]

Hi David,

Thank you for your input and insight.  As a former child from the home,  I hope The Anglican Church of  Hong Kong will win this suit.  There must have been thousands of children the home had helped, and given us the chance of becoming productive members of the society.  I recently have in my possession a digital copy of 2 pictures showing the japanese occupation of the home I believe in the mid 1940s.  The anonymous donor ask not to show until she said it was ok.  I will respect her wish.  I mention this because the historic value, and the hardship the home must of have to maintain it.  I would like to ask the Inland Revenue Department not to proceed with the suit due to many wonderful things the home have done for some many children.  Thanks,  ken

David,

Thanks for pinpointing the home on the map. As you probably know I have posted various pictures of the site that my family donated to the home back in 1967.

It seems to me, looking at the map, that the land has the new road through it but the point where the plaque may have been was nearer what looks like a roundabout. Phil is the specialist here.

I had understood that the Anglicans lost their case over the $180 million but may be wrong. For some reason I recall it was a mesy deal and involved one of the mega developers. Phil may have more info.

Whatever happened it seems clear the Anglicans consigned the plaque commemorating my grandmother Anna Louisa Olson and the gift of land, to the bin. None of the emails I have sent to the present home have received an answer and neither has the Anglican Church replied to any query I have raised. I suppose they are embarrassed. Seems a pity that such generosity should be dismissed in a somewhat cavalier way.

Phil is the real expert and is I think doing a bit more research.

Strange that I have pictures of my great uncles' graves in Happy Valley dating from 1872 and yet nothing from 1967 when the then bishop of HK unveiled the plaque.

As the now dead News of the World used to say "All human life is here."

Sean

I have been looking into the mystery of the Olson plot recently - courtesy of some aerial snaps of the area taken in 1973 and 1974 - and my suspicions are that the plaque occupied a position on top of a hill that used to sit where the current HK & KLN KFWA SUN FONG CHUNG COLLEGE now sits.

This whole spit of land that includes Sun Fong Chung college, Po Leung Kuk Tin Ka and the Japanese Int School was originally a finger of hillside that had the Tai Po road goind around the edge of it in a big hairpin loop. Remnants of the old route exist because they have been incorporated into the design of the various private roads around the three schools (just click on the googlemap to allow roads to be seen and you'll see the entrance to the Japanese school carpark is where the old road veered to the left around the hillside).

Anyway, Sean was kind enough to send me a photo, taken at the time of dedication of the land, of a procession of boys walking up stone steps with a pathway and road behind them and I have been able to match this photo with an area on the aerial photos. Basically it looks as though the plot of Olson land was indeed atop of this finger of hillside - and was separated from the St Christopher's main site by the Tai Po Road and a rather steep hillside.

I haven't looked into when the Tai Po Road was re-routed here (perhaps someone can let me know where I might find out) but the hillside looks to have been leveled in the process and the three schools built on the newly - available flat land.

The aerial snap below shows how the road used to loop around the Olson hillside - although this is oriented so that the top of the photo is actually south (the same direction the camera was pointed).

If you can imagine a straight line that chops off the loop at the base then this is a good approximation of how the road was re-routed/straightened to remove the long and danegrous bend. The Olson plot sat on top of this jutting land and so became a victim of redevelopment when the site was leveled and made into a develop'able plot. The three schools sit nicely together in the same loop of land today and one remaining part of the land is still undeveloped and referred to as plot T77 - located where the loop starts to straighten on the upper (i.e. southern) side. Of course, the remaining T77 plot is much lower than it once was.

I am sure Phil has solved the mystery of the land. My thanks to him and all his hard work.

Still find it strange that the home has never replied to my emails when I asked what happened to the stone that marked the donation. A simple "don't know" would have been better than silence.

However, mystery of the land itself now solved.

Thanks Phil.

Sean

David,

I was searching informations on the web and I am excited to read articles from Ken, and Sean about St. Christopher orphanage.  It was great to see all of the photos of the pllace.  I don't remember very much of the home.  However, I had a wonderful experience living there. They gave me a new life. They helped me find a family which I loved.  I left the home since 9/1963 and had not return to see the old place.  It was good to read about other who lived in St. Christopher Home. Hope to connect with more people and find my roots through your website.

Thank you,

Sara

Hi, David,

Thank you for your response and  update, I checked out the website. Do you by any chance know where I can find informations (records) of my deceased partent's names in HK.?  I just want to know their names and where they were from?  Whether they were native to HK , or were they from mainland China.   I have no memories of them or how I ended up at St, Christopher's Home. I was not a baby, I was a toddler. It is funny after all these years I am starting to think about my early life and want to do some research of my past.

Thanks

Sara

Dear Sara,

I may have been at St. Christopher's Home in Tai Po during the same time that you were there.  I would be happy to share information with you.  Feel free to contact me directly at chiuoiyansch@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Chiu Oi Yan

Hi

I may have been at St Christophers in 1961. I have tried to send an email to them but it bounces back. There have not been many recent posts here but can anyone tell me how I can contact the relocated St Christophers Orphanage?

Thanks

Sharon

Sara

I grew up at the orphanage in the late 1970s, I found my adoption records and reached out to isshk@isshk.org ..they then reached out to Hong  Kong social services..hope this helps..unfortunately my news was my mom passed away , so no other family info 

Hiya Sara,

Just reading the thread of comments, I too was at the home from June 1965-july1966 when I was adopted to an English family to the UK. I joined the Hong Kong adoptees network in 2013 after a study British Chinese adoption study by Julia Feast was done on 100 HK/UK adoptees from various children's homes in the 1960's. at least 78 of us meet for the first time in a large room at the British Association of Adoption and Fostering office. since then, we have had 2 meet ups a year in the UK and then covid lockdown came and we moved to zoom and met our USA, Canadian, Hawaiian, Australian, Hong Kong counterparts.

Through this group I have found my English and Hong Kong files. I have no names of birth parents, so I have gone down the DNA route and 5 years on have found a first cousin and the possibility of finding my birth mum and 7 siblings of which I am waiting on a DNA test to confirm if I have found them.

I did visit the home in 1979 and was shown around the baby /toddler section I grew up in and in 1994 wanted to show my partner but the home had been "pulled " down in 1993. 

For general information.

Established in 1935, it was known in English as the "Taipo Rural Home and Orphanage". The Orphanage was located on Taipo Road by the 13½ milestone. The site comprised 18½ acres. Source: Hong Kong Daily Press dated 23 April 1937

Governor Northcote opened the new extensions to the Taipo Rural Home and Orphanage on 2 March 1940. The early history of the Orphanage can be read in the Hong Kong Daily Press dated 4 March 1940

The name change to St. Christopher's Home occurred postwar according to their website

Using moddsey’s two links to the HK Daily Press articles above I’ve put together a time line for the first few years of the Orphanage:

1935 Summer – The Rural Orphanage began when 9 boys and one teacher began to cultivate a piece of ground near the 13.5 milepost on the Tai Po Road, along with raising some chickens.  Later on they took on pigs and goats.  Their accommodation was a matshed, a structure of bamboo, roofed with coarse matting.

1936 Spring - A tree planting ceremony was held and building started on land purchased by Mr Chau Man-chi, covering some 18.5 acres.

1937 April- 3 girls’ homes were completed to be occupied by 30 girls.  Each home was run by a house mother, who taught the girls housekeeping, washing, care of infants, and sewing.  In addition the girls learned gardening, the care of chickens and farm work, along with the boys (now 15 in number).  Although the work had started with boys, the girls' side became the greater, because the funding for the girls' work was better.  This was because it continued the work of the Victoria Girls' Home in Kowloon which closed in this year, and funding and ongoing support was already in place.

The aim was to equip them for rural life as well as to give them a basic education in the 3 Rs, hence the name of the orphanage.  ‘Kitchens, nurseries and fields are our most important classrooms.  Hand learning takes precedence over head learning,’ said Bishop Ronald Hall, who founded the work. 

The home was classed as a Mixed Vernacular Boarding School, and the aim was that these pupils should become future leaders in rural reconstruction work.  The boys were now accommodated in army huts.  

CMS missionaries Mrs Blanchett and Miss Kate Langford were put in charge of the girls' section, and two Chinese teachers Mr Lei Shiu Ling and Mr Cheung were in charge of the boys' section.

1939 January - the army huts were not strong enough to withstand the 1937 typhoon and a stone/concrete building was completed for the boys, thanks to a donation by Mrs Li Kiam.  That same year a new section was built to accommodate 20 more girls, taking the total number of children to 100.  A chapel and an assembly hall were also built and completed early in 1940.

1940 March – HK Governor Sir Geoffry (sic) Northcote opened the new extensions before a large number of visitors.  Bishop Hall gave a speech tracing the history of the project.  

1941 March - An 'At Home' Day was held by way of a fund raiser with over 200 guests attending.  On sale was an abundance of vegetable produce of the Home as well as handicraft work - a room of rattan ware and another of needlework.  The HK Daily Press reported on this occasion and also gave the names of members of the Home Committee serving under the Chairmanship of Bishop Hall.  Running the school was Miss M A (Margaret) Jennings, and under her was Miss F K (Kate) Langford , Girls' Superintendent, and Mr Ngan Kwok Hung, Boys' Superintendent.

By now the vegetables produced by the Home were being sold at market and the hope was to enter produce in the New Territories Agricultural Show.  Things then took a different course with the Japanese invasion at the end of 1941, but the orphanage was well placed to continue growing its own produce, and be self sufficient to some extent during the difficult war years.  In addition influential Chinese families supported the work.*  

Miss Jennings was superintendent during the war years, supported by a Miss Dillon* and they were not interned.  

*The Yip Family of Amah Rock - Jill Doggett.  In this account the Orphanage is referred to as a CMS (Church Missionary Society)  work.  It is referred to as the Rural Home/ Orphanage ie not St Christophers.  That title came post war.

1937 April- 3 girls’ homes were completed and occupied by 30 girls. 

I guess these girls moved here from the CMS Victoria Home and Orphanage in Kowloon, which closed in 1937.

Yes indeed, Admin, the HK Daily Press says:

'The girls' section of the orphanage continued the work of the Victoria Home, Kowloon.  Victoria Home money has already erected a home for 30 girls with superintendent's quarters.  They have brought some supporters with them from old subscribers and friends.'

Actually 28 girls made the move and two babies.  I've made adjustments to my piece above.

I hope this may prove interesting reading to some here.  I have been researching my family history and discovered that my grandmother left in her will $20000hk to the Tai Po orphanage in 1952. It transpires that my mother was adopted from the orphanage.  She was born in January 1937 and could well have been one of the two babies mentioned that were moved.

My mother remained in Hong Kong until she was 18, moving to the UK to study nursing. She past away in 1999 and unfortunately spoke very little of her childhood. 

Her final link to the past is that she is buried not 30 miles from the resting place of Bishop Hall.  Such a small world.